Worst time to try and solve an ongoing issue, advice?

I've been having intermittent issues with a 2 year old build. I was fairly certain the problem was my 660TI, but I was able to "deal" with it over time. I literally stopped playing Titanfall because that game was the most likely to cause issues.

It's gotten worse over time and with each nVidia driver update. I'd go into describing the error, but it shows up in different ways for different games. Basically the driver or "kernal" go down and sometimes recovers. All sorts of things go wrong after a crash and my sound is often very messed up.

Decided to try and make sure it is the graphics card. Ran Memory Test, no problems. Ran 3DMark and I had a D3D error and crash. About 99% sure it's the graphics card now and it's just getting worse after the upgrade to Win 10. Now, Heroes of the Storm is even crashing.

So, I'm weighing 2 factors. I want a card for VR, because that's the only thing about upcoming games that I'm excited about. I want a card now, so I can play my current games without crashing. What do you think is the most economical route?

Sounds like a software issue IMO. I would run a linux live distro, and stress test the video card if possible.

I would re install windows before I bought a new card. I am guessing your issue is stemming from a software problem somewhere.

Budget?

I think your current card is dead, I've had cards be similarly flaky where they just get worse and more likely to crash over time until I RMA'd them.

I wish I knew my budget. I'm trying to factor in the cost for a Vive (and/or Oculus).

I'm very tempted to get a 980TI, but concerned that will be a near "entry level" VR card (given than the 970/980 are listed as min reqs) and I'll have a desire to upgrade next year when the Pascal cards are released. So I'm thinking a 970 if it will legitimately run the Vive.

Rav3n, when you say software issue, do you have any insight into what software would be the problem? I've gone through fresh driver installs to try and resolve the issue. I don't know how I'd go about testing on a linux environment and I don't really have the appetite to do a fresh Win install. (That reminds me, I need to see if I can find a way to get Win10 disks should something happen.) Is there a tool that can test the RAM on your video card? I'm fairly certain that is my issue.

Have you tried re installing Windows fresh, with a fresh driver install? I would try that and stress test the card. If you have issues at that point, then obviously it would be the card.

If you just want a new card, then buy one. Sometimes I have a itch I need to scratch too lol

If you haven't already, use Display Driver Uninstaller (Google it) to uninstall your drivers and reinstall the latest Nvidia drivers, preferably without GeForce Experience (I find it can cause issues at times). Then use something like MSI Afterburner to monitor your temps. See if downclocking the card a bit fixes the issue.

For VR a 970 will most likely be insufficient as you should have pretty high framerate all the time. However VR games and hardware are still a long way off so it might be better to just get something like a used 290X or 970 at the moment and then upgrade when VR gear, games and newer graphics cards become available.

You can get Media Creation Tool from Microsoft to create a Win10 install USB stick. Before you do a clean install you should upgrade your OS to Win10. Then you can do a clean install or if you want you can go back to your previous OS.

Have you tried underclocking? It's not an ideal solution in terms of performance, but it may let you survive the upgrade bug until VR becomes a thing.

Things to do tonight: Display Driver Uninstaller and Win10 USB Stick.

So, I can certainly try to underclock, but if the card isn't being stressed to 100% right now, will that impact anything?

I get crashes in Diablo 3, Minecraft, Titanfall, Heroes of the Storm, Trine 2, sometimes Chrome, WoW had issues, Dragon Age, and others. Not the most stressful of games. In HoTS these days, I get lovely tearing and artifacting in some situations. Doesn't always crash.

Who makes your card, and when did you buy it? It's probably still under warranty.

Also, does your system have integrated graphics? If so, you can try running the games with just that installed, and see if your system still crashes. If not, then you have your culprit.

Please list ALL the parts in your build, so we can offer more suggestions.

When listing all parts in your build, I would want to hear:
the exact make, model and wattage of the PSU;
who made your 660 Ti and what model number it is (more info is better);
exactly how you have connected the power cables between the 660 Ti and the PSU (are there any adapters such as molex 4-pin to PCI-E 6-pin?);
exactly which motherboard you have (make, model number, version number if applicable) and what version of the BIOS it is running (is it the latest?)

Mobo: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 (Rev G/A 1.06)
CPU: i7-4770K
Mem: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3
PSU: EVGA NEX750G (8PIN to 6PIN+6PIN) (750Watts if not obvious by name, 80 PLUS)
GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 Ti GV-N66TOC-2GD

SSD: SanDisk 256 (OS)
HDD: 2xToshiba 3TB (Installs and Data)

Running dual monitors. Some oldies. Planar from 2003 (DVI) and an LG from 2008 (DVI).

I did a quick search with Gigabyte and the card is still under warranty for about a month. I might walk that route given the Newegg review (where I bought) has a decent percentage of people having the same issue.

Regarding BIOS versions and Driver versions for many of the other components, I don't think I've updated anything but my sound drivers over the years.

Thanks for all the input so far everyone!

simland said:

Mobo: ASRock Z87 Extreme4 (Rev G/A 1.06)
CPU: i7-4770K
Mem: Crucial Ballistix 16GB DDR3
PSU: EVGA NEX750G (8PIN to 6PIN+6PIN) (750Watts if not obvious by name, 80 PLUS)
GPU: GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 660 Ti GV-N66TOC-2GD

SSD: SanDisk 256 (OS)
HDD: 2xToshiba 3TB (Installs and Data)

Running dual monitors. Some oldies. Planar from 2003 (DVI) and an LG from 2008 (DVI).

I did a quick search with Gigabyte and the card is still under warranty for about a month. I might walk that route given the Newegg review (where I bought) has a decent percentage of people having the same issue.

Regarding BIOS versions and Driver versions for many of the other components, I don't think I've updated anything but my sound drivers over the years.

Thanks for all the input so far everyone!

Click to expand...

If other people have had the same issue, I would RMA the card.

When I looked at the ASRock Z87 Extreme4's BIOS download page, I immediately noticed that one of the April 2015 updates is "Improve VGA card compatibility". Now this is something you should try before doing the RMA of the video card.

Next, the EVGA NEX750G (not to be confused with the much better NEX750G2) is not a very good PSU. That PSU's poor voltage regulation and crossload test fails was one of the reasons EVGA switched from FSP to Superflower (hence the existence of the NEX750G2, which is Superflower). (Jonnyguru thread, TPU Review). Whether or not you choose to do an RMA of the video card or the BIOS update solves the problem, I'd replace the PSU next.

Did the BIOS update, did a clean sweep of nVidia drivers and a fresh install. Played some HoTS to test it out, ended up with some very brief stuttering that could have just been lag. However, I eventually ran into texture tearing, almost as if a polygon's vertices were somewhere 3 feet above the monitor. Hard to tell if it's a fault with the game/win10 or hardware. I'll do some testing in different games to see if I get my classic salvo of errors.

I'm bummed to hear about the PSU, I'll look into replacing that when I do eventually get a new card.

Again, thanks for the help in troubleshooting. I'll likely walk the RMA route after a few more days of testing. It'll be my first RMA in 12 years of building. Do I need any specific kind of evidence to support the RMA? It's pretty shady doing an RMA with 1 month to go on a 3 year warranty.